Lift Me Up After the Crash
by pinkish-red hearts
Summary: Separated for eight months after piloting together one of the planes on Oathkeeper Airlines, Captain Jaime Lannister and Captain Brienne Tarth meet each other once more. And they still have that unresolved thing from the last time they were together.


He couldn't be mistaken.

Of course, he wouldn't. One couldn't miss a six-foot-three tank of a woman no matter what she looked like.

But Jaime hadn't seen her in months.

After he was promoted to flying internationally and Brienne, though still domestic, rose in rank, they hadn't seen each other since. Though he doubted that was the reason.

"Brienne!" he found himself shouting. It looked like she didn't hear him but he saw her stiffen a bit before walking faster. "Wait!" he yelled again but she refused to look back. Jaime was certain she heard him.

"Don't you..." he growled under his breath, near shoving everyone who was getting in the way. "...get away from me again."

Finally, he managed to catch up to her and he grabbed her arm.

She jumped at the touch. For a moment, he thought Brienne would keep on pretending he wasn't there, but she turned around, smiling. _Fake_ , he wanted to tell her. The smile didn't reach her startling blue eyes.

"I haven't seen you in a while, Captain Lannister," she said and it irritated Jaime. Two years piloting the domestic flights on Oathkeeper Airlines together and it took him a year to get her to call him by name. Now it was all for naught. Though he only gave her a smile- as polite as hers.

"Same to you, Captain Tarth," he greeted back stiffly.

"How have you bee-"

"Are we really doing that, Brienne?" he cut her off harshly. "Do you want the polite answer or the honest one? We've always been honest with one another. Do you want to change that?" When she didn't reply, he continued. "Oh, I've been well. Is that what you wanted to hear? Because the truth is, I fucking missed you. Eight fucking months! Why haven't you spoken to me? And don't lie to me. I only expect the truth coming from you."

The polite facade she barely held together crumbled and Jaime felt both a confusing relief and sadness in his heart.

"I-" Brienne stammered, not meeting his gaze. Jaime silently cursed not being able to look at her sapphire eyes. "I just- I found out about your eldest son after we got off that flight. I shouldn't have done that. Even to keep you awake. I should've known your family was the reason you were drowsy that time. It was... unprofessional."

She was right... partly. Cersei had been psychologically evaluated and she was declared insane. He may not be in love with her anymore and was glad to get the custody of the kids, but the thought of her being in an asylum broke his heart nonetheless.\

He hadn't slept well for two nights.

Then, just before that eleven pm flight, he had received a text that Joffrey got in an accident- drunk driving. He was dead on arrival. The boy had always been hard-headed and a little too much like his mother but he became worse when he found out about the divorce. It was convenient the flight was from the Riverlands to King's Landing or else he would've taken another flight to get to his children.

That whole flight had been quiet. He was somber and Brienne must have noticed, seeing has he used to fill their time in the skies with his chatter. When it was almost time to turn off the autopilot, Jaime had still been out of sorts.

"I can do it," Brienne had insisted.

"I'm fine," Jaime replied weakly. "Just a little tired."

"A little? Jaime, you look like you haven't slept in days."

"Well, keep me awake then," he lashed out.

Her stare was glass- sharp but broken.

He had thought she would curse him, slap him, or punch him.

Instead, she kissed him.

It had been hot, hungry, desperate, filled with ache and longing. When they broke apart, Brienne immediately took her seat, her face flaming.

"Awake now?" she asked, not looking at him at all.

Jaime hadn't had time to ponder on that kiss. All he knew was his heart was racing, keeping him very much awake, and he had to land the plane.

After they were allowed to get off, Brienne walked away wordlessly. If he wasn't thinking about the kids, he would've run after her.

Only after Joffrey's funeral did he start thinking about that kiss.

"Because disappearing with only a text saying, congratulations was the best way to apologize," he snorted in reply. "I tried contacting you but you never replied. And for some reason, your schedules prevent us from meeting. I would have visited you personally but I don't know. I felt like it would have been worse."

"I'm truly sorry, Jaime," she muttered, still not making eye contact. "I should've been more mature about it, but..."

Brienne bit her lip and Jaime knew she was trying to hide something.

Jaime sighed. "But I suppose that time apart gave me time to think... about that incident..." It was his turn to trail off, but decided to go on anyway. He was willing to risk his heart once more. "...about us."

Brienne closed her eyes briefly then opened them, finally meeting his eyes. She looked like she was bracing herself for something. Something bad.

"I wanted to ask you out to dinner," Jaime said, mustering up a genuine smile.

Her eyes turned wide, emphasizing the brilliance of her eyes even more.

"Jaime, it's been eight months since..."

"Joffrey's death? My ex-wife going to the mental?" Brienne turned even sadder but not surprised. Somehow, Jaime's heart fluttered at the thought that she was still keeping an eye on him somehow. "I think I'm ready to move on."

"What about Tommen and Myrcella?" she reasoned.

Jaime grinned, already knowing how to rebut that. "I asked the kids. Myrcella is ecstatic to meet you." In fact, Myrcella had been the one to encourage him. His daughter seemed to have an intuition about these things. She somehow knew that his sadness wasn't anymore about the divorce or his dead son. After weeks of prodding, Jaime had decided to open up about Brienne and even showed her a photo, which Myrcella raised a brow at but didn't say anything other than 'pretty eyes'. She, then, began coaching him about wooing ladies. He had almost laughed at his own daughter teaching him about women but the panic became real. While he was handsome and knew how to use it, Brienne was immune to it. He had taken her advice seriously, only to have a mental block and everything was thrown out the window actually seeing her again.

"Tommen..." he added with a scrunch of nose. "...wasn't thrilled at first." The look of betrayal on his face was heartbreaking. "But then he got curious..." Jaime could almost chuckle at the memory of Tommen asking for stories about her. When Jaime showed him her photo, Tommen regarded her with curious eyes.

"If she's gonna be my new mommy, will she stay for good?" the boy had asked. It took Jaime minutes to answer the boy. The doubts were clawing at his heart.

"Well, you will have to ask her," was the only reply he could give.

"I love mommy," Tommen mumbled sleepily. "But I want a mommy who doesn't turn scary so she doesn't have to leave."

Jaime had watched his younger son fall into a deep slumber. He pitied and envied Tommen. The divorce ran deeper than just that. Cersei married him for money. She had been using it on drugs and alcohol, and what she couldn't buy with cash, she bought with her body. Her mental breakdown had been a hereditary condition triggered by the drugs.

"Jaime? You're hurting my arm."

With a mumbled apology, he let go of her arm, only just realizing his subconscious desperation of her running away and hiding again.

"The kids are alright, really," he assured her when her eyes narrowed into skeptical slits.

"Alright, even if they're presumably fine with it, why me- Bumbling Brienne, Too Tall Tarth?"

Jaime winced. Those were the nicknames he had given her when they first worked together.

"First of all, I would never be so selfish not to consider my kids."

Brienne looked away, guilty and embarrassed, but he cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"Second of all, you're Brienne Tarth. You are stubborn, judgmental, and kinda self-righteous," She grimaced but remained attentive. "But you're fierce, caring, honorable, and even more. You were there during my darkest hours. Seven hells! You took care of me when I injured my hand. Checking up on me as often as you can. Even nursing me when you really didn't have to." It wasn't really that bad and his hand fully recovered after a month but with all that went through his life, and Cersei being the one having the children when the drug thing wasn't known yet, he felt like it was the end of the world.

"You saved me from people trying to harass me. It was the least I could do."

It took all of Jaime's willpower not to scream in frustration. True. Maybe it was that. After all, he had saved her from that gang because it was a decent human thing to do. But that act of kindness was when it all started- harsh words to force him to live, but gentleness when she touched him, until they settled into a friendship, eventually, something more that Jaime hadn't realized was consuming him until that kiss. _Just why does this woman have to be so damn stubborn?_

"Brienne, could you stop being stupid for once?" he growled in frustration. He couldn't take it. She only seemed to be more responsive to insults.

The flash of hurt masked in her glare made him immediately regret his words.

"I'm sorry," he added. "Look. If you say no and you don't like me like that, that's fine. But believe me when I say that I do have feelings for you. That..." He swallowed. Jaime was afraid to finish that sentence. He was afraid it would scare her that he'll never see her again.

"I love you," Brienne blurted out. Jaime heard her but he was dazed, almost unbelieving. But when it finally hit him, he wanted to cry. Her eyes were shiny as she released a shaky breath. "Oh gods. I love you so much. I didn't know when or how but I just knew it was after you saved me. I tried convincing myself that it was only a crush and you had kids, but my heart is as stupid as my brain, I guess."

Jaime hated it when she put herself down but he tried to make it light. "Well, I'm stupid, too, so we're good."

"Do you really..."

"Yes," he said with a laugh. "I'm stupidly in love with you, too."

Brienne began crying.

"Oh shit, Brienne?"

"Dammit, Lannister," she said, sniffing. "Now everyone's going to find out that I'm a girl."

"Good," he replied proudly. "Then everyone will know that my girlfriend is as womanly as everyone else."

"Jaime, that's too fast!" she protested. He knew she was a traditional person, especially since the last time she tried being not a prude, she found out that the guy she slept with did it only as part of a bet back when she was in college.

"What?" he still couldn't help but tease. "Do you wanna be called my wife instead?"

She rolled her red eyes.

"Fine, yes."

"Wait, what?"

Her cheeks reddened. "I mean, yes. I'll go out to dinner with you."

Before Jaime could say something, a voice in the speakers paged for Brienne.

"I have to go. My number is still the same."

As Brienne turned to leave, Jaime held her hand to stop her. Her blue eyes stared at him curiously.

"Promise you're not running away from me again?" Jaime asked, feeling as vulnerable as Tommen.

Brienne relaxed. She walked a step closer to him and planted a kiss on his mouth. It was gentle and so unlike the kiss eight months ago but this kiss meant everything.

"I promise."

Jaime watched her leave. It was like watching a plane leave. It was sad, sure, but there was also that hope that it will return once more. Some planes crashed, but he believed in the pilot of this plane. She had picked him up when he barely escaped his crash, and let him soar high again.

 **Author's Note: This is what happens when your brother doesn't shut up about airplanes XD**


End file.
